Jean de Venette on the Progress of the Black
Death

In A.D. 1348, the
people of Florence and of almost the whole world were struck by a blow other than war. For
in addition to the famine . . . and to the wars . . . pestilence and its attendant
tribulations appeared again in various parts of the world. In the month of August, 1348,
after Vespers when the sun was beginning to set, a big and very bright star appeared above
Paris, toward the west. It did not seem, as stars usually do, to be very high above our
hemisphere but rather very near. As the sun set and night came on, this star did not seem
to me or to many other friars who were watching it to move from one place. At length, when
night had come, this big star, to the amazement of all of us who were watching, broke into
many different rays and, as it shed these rays over Paris toward the east, totally
disappeared and was completely annihilated. Whether it was a comet or not, whether it was
composed of airy exhalations and was finally resolved into vapor, I leave to the decision
of astronomers. It is, however, possible that it was a presage of the amazing pestilence
to come, which, in fact, followed very shortly in Paris an throughout France and
elsewhere, as I shall tell. All this year and the next, the mortality of men and women, of
the young even more than of the old, in Paris and in the kingdom of France, and also, it
is said, in other parts of the world, was so great that it was almost impossible to bury
the dead. People lay ill little more than two or three days and died suddenly, as it were
in full health. He who was well one day was dead the next and being carried to his grave.
Swellings appeared suddenly in the armpit or in the groin -- in many cases both -- and
they were infallible signs of death. This sickness or pestilence was called an epidemic by
the doctors. Nothing like the great numbers who died in the years 1348 and 1349 has been
heard of or seen of in times past. This plague and disease came from ymaginatione
or association and contagion, for if a well man visited the sick he only rarely evaded the
risk of death. Wherefore in many towns timid priests withdrew, leaving the exercise of
their ministry to such of the religious as were more daring. In many places not two out of
twenty remained alive. So high was the mortality at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris that for a
long time, more than five hundred dead were carried daily with great devotion in carts to
the cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris for burial. A very great number of the saintly
sisters of the Hôtel-Dieu who, not fearing to die, nursed the sick in all sweetness and
humility, with no thought of honor, a number too often renewed by death, rest in peace
with Christ, as we may piously believe.

This plague, it is said, began among the unbelievers, came to Italy, and
then crossing the Alps reached Avignon, where it attacked several cardinals and took from
them their whole household. Then it spread, unforeseen, to France, through Gascony and
Spain, little by little, from town to town, from village to village, from house to house,
and finally from person to person. It even crossed over to Germany, though it was not so
bad there as with us. During the epidemic, God of His accustomed goodness deigned to grant
this grace, that however suddenly men died, almost all awaited death joyfully. Nor was
there anyone who died without confessing his sins and receiving the holy viaticum. . . .

Some said that this pestilence was caused by infection of the air and waters, since
there was at this time no famine nor lack of food supplies, but on the contrary great
abundance. As a result of this theory of infected water and air as the source of the
plague the Jews were suddenly and violently charged with infecting wells and water and
corrupting the air. The whole world rose up against them cruelly on this account. In
Germany and other parts of the world where Jews lived, they were massacred and slaughtered
by Christians, and many thousands were burned everywhere, indiscriminately. The unshaken,
if fatuous, constantly of the men and their wives was remarkable. For mothers hurled their
children first into the fire that they might not be baptized and then leaped in after them
to burn with their husbands and children. It is said that many bad Christians were found
who in like manner put poison into wells. But in truth, such poisonings, granted that they
actually were perpetrated, could not have caused so great a plague nor have infected so many people. There were other causes; for example, the
will of God and the corrupt humors and evil inherent in air and earth. Perhaps the
poisonings, if they actually took place in some localities, reinforced these causes. The
plague lasted in France for the greater part of the years 1348 and 1349 and then ceased.
Many country villages and many houses in good towns remained empty and deserted. Many
houses, including some splendid dwellings, very soon fell into ruins. Even in Paris
several houses were thus ruined, though fewer here than elsewhere.

After this cessation of the epidemic, pestilence, or plague, the men and women who
survived married each other. There was no sterility among the women, but on the contrary
fertility beyond the ordinary. Pregnant women were seen on every side. . . . But woe is
me! the world was not changed for the better but for the worse by this renewal of
population. For men were more avaricious and grasping than before, even though they had
far greater possessions. They were more covetous and disturbed each other more frequently
with suits, brawls, disputes, and pleas. Nor by the mortality resulting from this terrible
plague inflicted by God was peace between kings and lords established. On the contrary,
the enemies of the king of France and of the Church or stronger and wickeder than before
and stirred up wars on sea and on land. Greater evils than before [swarmed] everywhere in
the world. And this fact was very remarkable. Although there was an abundance of all
goods, yet everything was twice as dear, whether it were utensils, victuals, or
merchandise, hired helpers or peasants and serfs, except for some hereditary domains which
remained abundantly stocked with everything. Charity began to cool, and iniquity with
ignorance and stand to abound, for a few could be found in the good towns and castles who
knew how or were willing to instruct children in the rudiments of grammar.